Mexico City, June 2013 - #1: Hola de Mexico!

Mexico City, June 2013

Hola! I arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday for a two month summer internship with Mexicanos Primero, an NGO doing really exciting work at the intersection of education and law (right up my ally!) While I'm here, I'll be doing my usual travel blog posting to keep all of you up to day and share the fun and funny things about my trip. There are sure to be many!

My apartment and the cute (incessantly barking) "guard" dog above us.

The first night I arrived, my friend's sister Edme picked me up at the airport and I spent the night at her beautiful apartment. She and her brother were (unsurprisingly) so welcoming and wonderful! They took me out for tacos for my first Mexican meal, and boy were they delish! The next day, Edme brought me and my mountains of luggage to my apartment in an area called Florida (or Altavista - I still haven't figured out exactly what my neighborhood is called) where I am renting a room from a designer who has a beautiful apartment covered with art and cool lamps and furniture. His name is Lorenzo (although his girlfriend calls him José...I haven't figured out what I should call him yet) and he is currently working on an ingenious project where he has designed normal looking adaptive clothing for the elderly and disabled. It's so cool and such a great idea (iqclothes.com)! He's super nice and so accommodating, and best, loves to cook and share with me!  I started work on Thursday, and everyone is wonderful there. Best of all, it's a pretty 15 minute walk from my apartment, which means I don't have to deal much with Mexico City's notoriously terrible traffic or even the overcrowded and pick-pocket prone public transportation. I'm also close to a few really cute town centers that I have yet to explore, and every world cuisine you can think of. So far things have worked out pretty well :).

So now I'll give you a taste of my first few days here.

First, I should note that all the women in Mexico City wear incredibly high heels. Everywhere. To work, to friend's houses, to dinner...it doesn't matter, they all wear them. I don't understand how they manage, because the sidewalks are uneven and sometimes cobblestone or grooved, and they seem to walk decent distances in stilettos with absolutely no problem! I am in complete awe.

On my run this morning to the park nearby

The second thing I should note is that I planned all wrong for the weather here! I thought it would be hot and sunny, but it turns out it rains all the time, and on Friday, it hailed! Big balls of hail banging down on the cab my co-workers and I were taking back to the office from a venue "scouting" trip for an event they're planning. One minute it was sunny, and the next there was a torrential downpour that turned into hail bouncing around us everywhere. Oh - and an hour and a half taxi ride that should have taken about 30 minutes. My first real taste of Mexico City gridlock.

Someone was thirsty for jugo de naranja!

The third thing I have discovered has nothing to do with Mexico City, per se. Most of you know that Lou and I recently got engaged. We are so incredibly excited! Annnnd, upon my arrival in Mexico City, or rather, my first day at work, I learned that being engaged means you're in a club of other engaged women who want to talk about weddings all the time! One of my co-workers, Ayi (her nickname) also recently got engaged and is planning a wedding for next May. Well we made fast friends! And everyone in the office, well, everyone in general, wants to hear all about the engagement and wedding planning! This has a lot of benefits. First, it's an awesome way to meet people and have something to talk about immediately. A great friend-maker! Second, I can ask a simple question, and then listen for a long time to descriptions of engagements, plans, venues, dresses, everything you can imagine, without having to struggle through complicated and unforeseen vocabulary and verb conjugation. Finally, weddings present a finite and manageable set of vocabulary that I can certainly master quickly! One of the first things I did when I got home that day was to review the wedding section of my Spanish textbook.     

Here are some exciting things that happened in my first week here:

Path on my run Sunday morning - lovely!

1. Speaking Spanish and a Watermelon Party!
After settling in and finishing my first day of work, I decided that I would only speak Spanish at work starting day 2. Thankfully my co-workers are incredibly patient and finish my sentences for me to move the conversations along from there painfully slow pace. Even after a couple days though, I am feeling more comfortable with the language and with speaking, and I am hoping that I'll pick it up quickly! My first Friday, my roomie (as they're called here - it's the cutest thing ever and everyone says that!) hosted a small party with his friends. There was a frozen vodka soaked watermelon that we turned into something like a frozen margarita - it was really tasty and also just fun to make. Lorenzo and his girlfriend's friends were really nice, and mostly patient with me. One of them was an art therapist, which is apparently somewhat unheard of here because all of their other friends were intrigued and confused about why you would have art therapy and what it even was exactly. I just listened, but I couldn't figure out how to say anything so I couldn't help explain or even say that I knew about it - it was the end of a long day of speaking Spanish and I have to admit my brain had started to turn off by that point too. But all in all, it was a very successful first day of functioning in Spanish!

Lesson for the kiddies about seeds :)

2. Making a friend!
Saturday evening, I met my soon-to-be married co-worker at Club France (a francophone/francophile country club near my apartment) for a photo exhibit of restored family photos by her soon-to-be sister in law. It was really fun to meet her friends and see really historic pictures that trace the history of Mexico and were just plain cool. We went out to dinner afterwards, and I actually think I got better at speaking from the beginning of the night to the end, but more importantly, she's the sweetest and I had a great time! So here's to friends in Mexico City!

In the park near my apartment on the 2K loop

3. EARTHQUAKE!
After coming home from my exciting night of socializing in Spanish, I was brushing my teeth when all of a sudden, things just started to shake back and forth, and then the lights went out, and there was seriously frightening swaying for at least 10 seconds and maybe longer! It was terrifying! And I just froze, my toothbrush in my mouth full of toothpaste, and grabbed on to the sink. In case you do not know, this is NOT the correct response to an earthquake. But I just froze! First I thought, get in the doorways! But then realized that was for a tornado. Then I thought, get in the shower! Close the curtain! Then I thought, maybe that's a tornado too, or a hurricane. Then I thought, oh god, I'm going to get buried in this building when it collapses and I have no idea what to do, and then I thought I would crawl out of the tiny bathroom window. While I was fruitlessly wracking my brain and also just kind of weirded out by the swaying, everyone else in my building was running down the stairs and out of the building into the street, which is what you're supposed to do in an earthquake. Ooops.  When I finally got my phone and turned on the flashlight, my roomie came up and realized I was home (I only got home 5 minutes before the earthquake). He knocked and when I opened the door he said, "Becky! Did you feel..." (I cut him off and yelled, mouth still full of toothpaste, "THE ERFQUK???") He then informed me that if there was any other earthquake I was to immediately grab my keys and exit the building as fast as possible! So now I know. And luckily, even though it was a level 6 earthquake, no one was hurt and not even a dish in the apartment broke. I told him today that I am a very heavy sleeper and to please make sure I wake up next time there is an earthquake, and he assured me he would :).

So that's my exciting week 1 update! I will keep posting at least once a week throughout the summer, so follow if you feel so inclined and definitely send me emails about what's going on with you! I love getting emails and even though I have so far had success at making a friend, I miss all the ones back in the States and love hearing from all of you.

Muchos Besos!